Queer Kinship and Family Change in Taiwan (Families in Focus)

Interweaving the narratives of multiple family members, including parents and siblings of her queer and trans informants, Amy Brainer analyzes the strategies that families use to navigate their internal differences. In __Queer Kinship and Family Change in Taiwan__, Brainer looks across generational cohorts for clues about how larger social, cultural, and political shifts have materialized in people’s everyday lives. Her findings bring light to new parenting and family discourses and enduring inequalities that shape the experiences of queer and heterosexual kin alike. Brainer’s research takes her from political marches and support group meetings to family dinner tables in cities and small towns across Taiwan. She speaks with parents and siblings who vary in whether and to what extent they have made peace with having a queer or transgender family member, and queer and trans people who vary in what they hope for and expect from their families of origin. Across these diverse life stories, Brainer uses a feminist materialist framework to illuminate struggles for personal and sexual autonomy in the intimate context of family and home. Winner of the 2019 Ruth Benedict Prize for Outstanding Single-Authored Monograph Interweaving the narratives of multiple family members, including parents and siblings of her queer and trans informants, Amy Brainer analyzes the strategies that families use to navigate their internal differences. In Queer Kinship and Family Change in Taiwan, Brainer looks across generational cohorts for clues about how larger social, cultural, and political shifts have materialized in people’s everyday lives. Her findings bring light to new parenting and family discourses and enduring inequalities that shape the experiences of queer and heterosexual kin alike. Brainer’s research takes her from political marches and support group meetings to family dinner tables in cities and small towns across Taiwan. She speaks with parents and siblings who vary in whether and to what extent they have made peace with having a queer or transgender family member, and queer and trans people who vary in what they hope for and expect from their families of origin. Across these diverse life stories, Brainer uses a feminist materialist framework to illuminate struggles for personal and sexual autonomy in the intimate context of family and home. Introduction: bringing families of origin into focus -- Meanings of silence and disclosure -- (queerly) carrying on the family -- Gender and power across generations -- Strategic normativity : sex, politics, and parents -- Siblings and family work -- Conclusion -- Acknowledgements -- Appendix A: Naming and language -- Appendix B: List of interviewees -- Notes -- Index Interweaving the narratives of multiple family members, including mothers, fathers, and siblings of her queer and trans informants, Amy Brainer analyses the ways that families navigate their internal differences. Brainer looks across generational cohorts for clues about how larger social, cultural, and political shifts have materialized in people's everyday lives. In Queer Kinship and Family Change in Taiwan, Amy Brainer provides an in-depth look at queer and transgender family relationships in Taiwan. Brainer is among the first to analyze first-person accounts of heterosexual parents and siblings of LGBT people in a non-Western context.